Contains only the core of the SDD features dealing with descriptive data. All infrastructure and many advanced features have been removed! This version has been created only for the purpose of focussing the discussion of the SDD working group. It is NOT a functional schema!

 Provides root element. Note that the version of the SDD standard used is defined in the namespace declaration and needs no separate data element. Note: until xInclude is sufficiently widespread implemented to combine data from different documents, terminology, descriptions, and resources must be in the same document! Defines the terminology (parts, characters, states, etc.) in which the descriptions are expressed. The classes (biology: taxa) and objects (biology: specimens) that are being described. Descriptions of either an abstract class concept (taxon, disease, etc.) or a physical object (individual specimen, part of individual, etc.). Dichotomous or multifurcating authored keys (including legacy data) The terminology is designed by the biological specialist(s). It defines the semantics of structural hierarchies of the organisms, methods, properties, characters, states, and modifiers. These terms are then used in the Descriptions (through references to their IDs ('key' attributes). Contains detailed terminological definitions (of object/part, object types, property, method, property state, etc.). These are referenced in character, state, etc. definitions, but may also be used independently. The Glossary entry for a single concept (object, method, property, state, etc.), which may be expressed in multiple audience-specific representations. [ATTR: key] @@unusually, in Glossary authors and revision status are given for EACH translation. This may be appropriate given complex material is presented in each Representation, but it is also inconsistent with the rest of the SDD schema. Please comment whether to move RevisionData here, and if so what to call the collection of Representation elements: Representations?? @@ Defines the semantics and labels of coding status values (e. g. unknown, not applicable, not interpretable). Coding status values (= 'missing data indicators', = 'special states') provide standardized reasons why data are missing. Unlike most elements in Terminology, these are constrained by the SDD model and can only be extended by revising the SDD standard (may be changed to user-definable in a later version of SDD). Labels are already user-definable to support multiple audiences. The labels and abbreviations given are only recommendations. They can be freely changed as long as the semantics are preserved. [ATTR: key] Defines the semantics and labels of statistical measures (e. g. mean, min, max, s. d., s. e., sample size). Unlike most other elements of the terminology, these definitions are constrained by the SDD model and cannot be extended by the designer of the terminology. However, future versions may allow this without requiring structural changes to SDD. (Note: generic categorical states are defined inside the concept trees, not here!) Each definition defines a fixed key value, multilingual label and glossary information (user extensible to new audiences) and attributes describing generalized semantics. [ATTR: key] Probability, Frequency, and general modifiers modify categorical states or statistical measures. Modifiers are defined for the entire project, but must be enabled on a per-character basis to be applicable to states in descriptions. This enabling occurs through the user-definable modifier sets. Probability modifiers are used to describe the probability of statements about categorical states and statistical measures (perhaps, probably, almost certainly, etc.). The true-by-misinterpretation modifiers are included as a special case (= 'certainly-false'). Probability modifier [ATTR: key] Frequency modifiers are used to describe state frequency (usually, rarely, etc.). The frequency range or estimate can be stated explicitly to Frequency modifier [ATTR: key] General modifiers include modifiers of degree, manner, time and location (strongly, at the tip, etc.). General modifiers convey their specific semantics only to human consumers (or processors able to parse and interpret the label). General modifier (degree, location, timing) [ATTR: key] Multiple sets of modifiers (each identified by a key and a label) can be defined. A group of related general modifier definitions, allowing to enable a modifier set for a character in a single step. [ATTR: key] Characters are defined in a flat, unordered list. Multiple hierarchical views and ordered sequences are defined through the optional concept tree definitions below. [ATTR: key] Hierarchical trees of property, structure or part, methods or other concepts. The trees can be operationalized by inserting characters (only these allow scoring of data in the descriptions). Generic states can be defined at appropriate concepts (property or kind-of-part) and dependencies are expressed here as well. Finally, it is possible to express concepts in the form of flat subsets of characters for filtering purposes. @@DISCUSS: should concept tree hierarchies be recursively definable, as long as the resulting tree is acyclical?@@ [ATTR: key] The term 'Entities' is used to refer to the things that are being described. These may be classes (biology: taxa) or objects ('instances'; biology: specimen). Note: Classes and Objects contain lists of external Resources, similar to the lists in the Resources section. Entities are separated from Resources because they have such a central role for the descriptive data. Internal list of class (biology: taxon) names used in the project, each one may optionally link to an external data source. These connectors are reused multiple time in the description. For biology: Object in a nomenclator [ATTR: key] Internal list of objects (biology: specimens) used in the project, each object is either described in free form text, or refers to external data source. Biology: Object in a collection (= specimen) or observation [ATTR: key] (Section within the SDD root) A strict and largely language- independent description entirely controlled by the terminology defined in the current project. [ATTR: key] Root section containing authored guided keys (= dichotomous or multifurcating keys, polyclaves). Note that guided keys may also be created by applications 'on the fly' based on data in terminology and descriptions. This section is only intended to represent carefully manually designed keys. [ATTR: key] The following types are used in the Terminology section to define characters, states, trees/tree nodes etc. Defines a character in the terminology Label includes abbreviations (e. g. for tabular reports) but no natural language wording. (Natural language wording for characters is available through concept trees!). - cardinal data scale = integer (incl. negative values, although these are extremely rare in descriptive biological data; DELTA: type 'IN') - interval = real numeric = floating point values (DELTA: type 'RN') - nominal = unordered categorical states (DELTA: type 'UM') - ordinal-discrete = ordered categorical states (DELTA: type 'OM') @@ Should we make a distinction between ordinal-discrete and ordinal-interval [= ordered categorical states (DELTA: type 'OM'). Like ordinal-discrete but states can intergrade. Example: no / few / many hairs, ovate / ellipsoid. However, also intergrade without order: - Color @@ introduce a separate datatype for color? Exact value are not very practical, but polygons in color space would be very usefull! Only applicable if character type is cardinal or interval (not controlled by schema!) Constrains which project-wide StatisticalMeasure definitions can appear in descriptions of this character. Note: Some statistical measure definitions (min, median, mode, etc.) could apply also to ordinal or even nominal types. This is, however, not yet supported in SDD. The key attribute must be unique and is referred to in the descriptions. The ref refers to the semantics defined in the project-wide statistical measure definitions. [ATTR: key, ref] Unit like mm, µm, °C. The content allows some xhtml formatting to support e. g. "mm2". A Postfix attribute may be set to false to output string before a value (e. g. 'pH 7.0'). Applicable to all character types; categorical states can be defined in addition to statistical measures! (States are defined outside the type specific tree, since categorical states may be present in addition to numerical data) (the sequence of states in the xml file is significant) Local definition of a state [ATTR: key] Reference to a single generic state (as defined project-wide at a concept tree node). [ATTR: key, ref] Refers to a project-wide definition of a generic categorical state and adds a new key to allow unique references to the generic state in the context of the current character. The key created here is the one referred to in the Descriptions. Refers to a generic character state (those defined within the concept tree, which may be used in multiple characters) The project-wide modifier definitions become applicable to the current character only if a modifier set containing them is referenced here. Modifier usage in descriptions is not controlled by the schema, i. e. modifiers not present in any set may be present in descriptions for this character. Additional validations are, however, possible. Multiple modifier sets can be referenced in each character. The applicable modifiers are the union of all modifiers in the referenced sets (duplicates are ignored) [ATTR: ref] Defines an entire concept tree (which may be a single tree node containing a flat list) Label to identify the current object in the user interface The type of a tree is constrained to an enumerated list to support application interoperability. Usage of concept tree intended by its designers; constrained to an enumerated list to support application interoperability. The root node of the tree. Note that it has a label in addition to the tree label. The tree label uniquely identifies a tree when selecting it among a list of all trees, whereas the root node label can be very short and is shown when a single tree is displayed. [ATTR: key] A node in a concept tree Project-wide state definitions tied to the part (e. g. for fruit: capsule, berry, nutlet, etc.), property (e. g. for color: red, green, etc., for shape: round, ovate, etc.), method, etc. described in the current tree. GenericStates become operational for descriptions only when binding or instantiating them in specific characters. The definition of generic states is identical to the local definition of states within a character. Using generic states simplifies the management of terminology and improves data analysis (states from different characters can be compared if they refer to generic states). [ATTR: key] A node either contains other nodes, or contains a single character reference. It may also be empty to decouple the definition of hierarchies (e. g. a complete part hierarchy) from characters defined at a given moment. Element may be missing, which results in the option to have empty nodes with neither a character nor further nodes. [ATTR: key] Characters are the 'leaves' of the tree. Each character is embedded in a node providing labeling information in the context of the current tree (which is usually different from the default character label). A single character may appear in several places in the tree, if this is desired. [ATTR: ref] Abstract base type used to derive statistical measures, coding status values and categorical state definitions. Based on StateDefBaseType, for categorical states. Used in generic (= 'project-wide') and local character state definitions. Any use of a character state in descriptions is a reference to an object of this type or one of its derivations. If present and true, the current state/ category allows unconstrained text not tied to a truly analytical state. Such states (which may be labeled: 'Text', 'Other:', 'none of the above, please specify:') prevent, especially if the terminology is still under development, that during data entry potentially inappropriate category must be chosen. DELTA text character are modeled using these states, but they also can occur in combination with categorical states. UnconstrainedText states are somewhat similar to the 'unknown' coding status, since the free-form text information is not available to most analytical processors (incl. identification programs). (This 2nd annotation contains detailed informations not entered in the first annotation, which is visible in the standard schema diagrams.) The name for this data element was contentious. Proposals were: Bob: IsIsolatedState with default false. Gregor: IsAnalyticalState, StateComparisonIsRecommended, or IsWellDefinedState, all with default true. ImpreciseEqualitywith default false? Furthermore, one may want to make a distinction between a category saying "enter free form text here" and one explicitly saying "none of the above". However, the action of choosing a separate free form text state instead of scoring a category (if available) and adding free-form note text, implies that choosing free-form text is always of the type "none of the above", whether this is explicitly stated in the text state label or not. Used inside the character definition, it refers to a generic statistical measure in Terminology/StatisticalMeasures. In addition to the ref it defines a new key and formatting information. Refers to a generic statistical measure The key attribute provides a new key to uniquely refer to the statistical measure in the context of the current character. This key is the one referred to in the Descriptions. The ref present here is a reference to the project-wide definitions of statistical measures. CodingStatus and StatisticalMeasures are defined project-wide: Based on StateDefBaseType; for CodingStatus values Properties describing a coding status value. They are provided to support generic application code that continues to function if new codes are added. @@ Both proposals need elaboration and discussion! To be coded / Not to be coded / Cannot be coded / coded successfully NotEvaluated / CannotExist / DoesNotExist / Exists For StatisticalMeasures. Can not be derived from StateDefBaseType by extension, since the nat. language wording requires TextBefore and TextAfter the value instead of only a single Text. @@ Does it makes sense to derive this by restriction as it is currently done? @@ Properties describing a statistical measure. Provided to support generic application code that continues to function if additional indicators are defined. Classification of statistical measures into predefined categories like CentralValue, VarianceMeasure, Min, Max, Lower/UpperRangeLimit, etc. @@ add enumeration to finalize schema! Classification of statistical measures according to method, e. g. ConfInterval, Percentile @@ add enumeration to finalize schema! A value defining the method. For Method='ConfInterval' this would be 0.95 for a 95% confidence interval. Modifier definitions (probability, frequency, general) are grouped into sets for management purposes. Definition and sets are both derived from common base types. Abstract base type for all modifier definitions (probability, frequency, etc.) Definition of probability (= uncertainty) modifiers An estimate of a probability range for verbal modifiers, defined through two attributes. The upper/lower limits of probability modifiers may overlap. Note that it is possible to enter 0-1 to indicate that no estimate was possible. If present and true the current modifier indicates that the state to which it refers is present or true only due to a misinterpretation. The probability range should be 0 to 0 = certainly false. Definition of frequency modifiers An estimate of a frequency range for verbal modifiers, defined through two attributes. The upper and lower limits of several frequency modifiers may overlap. Note that it is possible to enter 0-1 to indicate that no estimate was possible. Definition of general modifiers Set of references to modifier definitions. A set has a key and can be referenced as a whole. Label to identify the current object in the user interface. List of modifiers (Probability, Frequency, General) defined in the set. (Unenforced constraint: At least 1 modifier from 1 modifier category should be present!) Manually designed keys are a separate section: Defines a guided key (dichotomous or multifurcating key) that has been manually created with expert knowledge. Note that guided keys may also be automatically created by applications based on information in terminology and using shortest search criteria in the coded descriptions. Label to identify the current object in the user interface. If the key is derived from a published data source this is cited here. If Citation is missing, it is assumed that the compiler or editor of the data is the original source of information. The root node of the designed key. Note: Applications will generally ignore the Statement element in the root node when the key is selected as a whole. However, if a key shall be used both as independent key and as a branch node in another key, Statement must be defined. In both cases CodedStatements may be used to define statements that are applicable to the entire key (i. e. they are implied in the selection of the key). [ATTR: key] A node in a designed key, containing the lead statement to follow and optionally the next question, or terminating at class identification, subkey, or node reference. The key attribute for nodes in a designed Key is required because an xs:key constraint exists on this attribute. It seems impossible in xml schema to make existence of keys optional but require those present to be unique and the target of keyrefs that point to these existing keys. If the user agrees with the statement (expressed as free-form text), then the node will be followed. (The audience-specific representations provide abbreviations, which in picture keys may be used as alt-text of the image. ExportToken will usually not be used, but a separate type seemed to be unnecessary.) Statements in coded terminology equivalent to the text in Statement. This information is used when switching between guided and multiple entry keys. Each state listed in the collection is considered scored when the lead text is followed. Note that in the case of "A or B" statements in the key it is not possible to convert that into coded statements. A node contains either further nodes (= Leads), a single references to another key or key node, or a class reference (biology: a taxon) as the result of an identification. Optional question that is answered by the Statement elements in each of the Leads below. Note that in most trad. keys the question is empty and only the alternative statements are written. The set of alternative statements (which may be answers to QuestionText) At least two alternatives leading further on in the key must be provided. This element defines the tree recursively. Refers to a class name (in biology a taxon name) [ATTR: ref] Refers to another designed key in the Keys section. This feature allows cross references between keys. [ATTR: ref] Refers to arbitrary key nodes within the current or other keys, to allow building reticulations into the key. @@ This may need further discussion and testing! Allowing to jump into other keys requires the leads (=node) key to be unique across all keys, not only within a key!@@ [ATTR: ref] Start of types referencing the definitions. The first ones are already used in Terminology. Refers to a character (e. g. from within concept trees or from Descriptions). It consists only of a reference to a Character definition key. ref refers to a character definition key (Terminology/Characters/Character) Refers to a character state (e. g. from Descriptions). It consists only of a reference to a Character state definition key. ref refers to a character state key A collection of state references (CharacterStateRefType) [ATTR: ref] Refers to a general modifier (e. g. from within character states) Refers to a general modifier (Terminology/Modifiers/General/Modifier) A collection of general modifiers (The sequence of elements in the collection is not informative.) [ATTR: ref] Refers to a frequency modifier (e. g. from within character states) Refers to a frequency modifier (Terminology/Modifiers/Frequency/Modifier) A collection of frequency modifiers (The sequence of elements in the collection is not informative.) [ATTR: ref] Refers to an probability modifier (e. g. from within character states) Refers to an probability modifier A collection of probability modifiers (The sequence of elements in the collection is not informative.) [ATTR: ref] Refers to a modifier set (e. g. from within a character, to enable a set of modifiers for this character) Refers to a modifier set (Terminology/Modifiers/Sets/Set) Refers to an entire designed Key (e. g. if a key is referenced as a subkey from within another key) Refers to an entire designed Key definition Refers to a node in a DesignedKey (e. g. for reticulating keys) Refers to a node in a designed key Descriptions are a collection of natural language or coded description types. Both are derived from the same base type: Abstract base type for NaturalLanguageDescriptionType and CodedDescriptionType. The key attribute is currently not used in keyrefs from within this schema. However, it is considered generally useful to uniquely identify descriptions in federated situations. This is the description of either an abstract class (e. g. a biological species) or an individual object (e. g. a specimen). Refers to a class name (in biology a taxon name) [ATTR: ref] Refers to an individual object (e. g. a biological specimen). Objects may refer to observed objects as well as to collected and preserved objects. The identification of a specimen is stored in the resource section. [ATTR: ref] A description may be further defined through a published data source for the nat. language or coded description. If Citation is missing, it is assumed that the compiler or editor of the data is the original source of information. Contains multiple resources (e. g. images). @@ In previous versions, a description may consist of resources alone, this is not possible after Paris - may need discussions! @@ @@ Also, it is no longer clear whether the images are also created by Creators, or who has the IPR to them! @@ Descriptions entered as data referring to the terminology elements. CodedDescriptions must fulfill more rigorous consistency requirements than natural language descriptions and are more suitable for analysis. Furthermore, language-dependent annotations are minimized so that data can be easily reorganized and translated into multiple languages. The coded description is entirely controlled by the vocabulary and structures defined in the Terminology section. It contains keyrefs to descriptors and modifiers (plus numerical values for measurements). Free-form text is allowed in Notes or Annotation only. Separating data and terminology allows rearranging and refactoring the terminology, multilingual support through central terminology translations, and multiple hierarchical views. (The xml sequence of Character or ObservationsSet elements is not informative and may be changed at any time!) (a uniqueness constraint guarantees that (except in ObservationSets) a character may occur only once in each description and that each State, StatisticalMeasure, and CodingStatus occurs only once!) [ATTR: ref] The following types are used in the Descriptions section to code data by reference to characters, states, and modifiers defined in the Terminology. Abstract base type for character data in coded descriptions. It primarily contains a reference to a Character definition key, plus a set of references to character state definition keys. @@This base type may be redundant. Is Sequence really relevant both in coded synthetical data as well as in raw data?@@ Constrained to 'description' or 'terminology' (default). If Sequence = description the sequence of states in the xml document is considered to be meaningful and can be used to distinguish between, e. g. 'round or elliptic' and 'elliptic or round'. Used in coded descriptions to make statements covering a single character of a class or object. The type provides a ref to the definition of a character (it is derived from CharacterRefType) States are 'scored' in a description by referring to a state in the character definition. All notes and modifiers are applicable to this element. [ATTR: ref] Statistical measures contain synthetic information like distribution parameters, sample size, etc. Refers to a StatisticalMeasure defined for the current character. It may have associated Notes (public notes) and Probability modifiers, but no general or frequency modifiers. The value is stored in an attribute of type double. [ATTR: ref, Value] Inapplicable, unknown, etc. It may have associated Notes, but no modifiers. [ATTR: ref] Note: In an object (= specimen) description only a single indicator may occur per character. However, for a class (e. g. a genus) it is up to the aggregation/generalization process whether to create multiple coding status values or not. For example, an expression "unknown or not applicable" may be useful for analytical purposes. Media specific to the character and the current object or class described. Example: microscopic picture of spore shape in a specimen. The abstract base type defines the common attributes that are used in both coding status (not modifiable) and normal categorical state (modifiable) references. Public notes or comments, for multiple audiences. Applications may, e. g., report the text in brackets after the character state. If a new description is created as a child of the current description (in the class hierarchy or through an object identification), the current state will be inserted. This may be a normal state or a coding status. The inserting mechanism is available in addition to the dataless inheritance mechanism in the class hierarchy. @@ Open issue: Name for this element needs to be decided@@ Like CharacterStateData_BaseType, but allows expression of state probability, frequency, and general modifiers. Expression of probability: 'probably', 'perhaps', etc. [ATTR: ref] Choice of numeric value, numeric range, or modifier reference Numeric statement, single Value attribute Numeric frequency range (Lower/UpperEstimate attributes) Reference to globally defined frequency modifier (ref attribute). General modifiers of intensity ('very', 'weakly'), location ('at the tip'), timing ('spring', 'autumn'), etc. (The seq. of modifiers is informative!) [ATTR: ref] Similar to CharacterStateDataType, this one is intended for statistical measures. The ref attribute points to a statistical measure definition inside a character definition. @@Note: the necessity of Note inside statistical measures needs to be discussed. On measures like min, max, mean this will be difficult to support during natural language reporting! However, on measures like sample size they may be valuable. Expressions of probability: 'probably', 'perhaps', etc. are defined for numeric values and statistical measures. Frequency expressions are considered not applicable to statistical measures! [ATTR: ref] Similar to CharacterStateDataType, this one is intended for CodingStatus references. The ref attribute points to the key of Terminology/CodingStatusValues/CodingStatus @@Is it ok to inherit the ref attribute from the state base type, even though it points elsewhere? ResourceConnectors and references: Abstract base type for connectors to resources (publications, class names, specimens, etc.). Provides either a simple free-form text, or a connection to an external resource. Defines a service used to resolve ExternalID. This could be the URI of a wsdl-file of a web service. Can be URI, but does not have to. Examples: "ref://x.y.fr/floras/smith/1998", "432787632", "SMI1998_DZT" Human readable representation; this may be the only data item if no machine readable ID exists. Example in the case of a publication resource: "Smith 1998. Flora of Erehwon, Fingers Publishers." If an external ID exists, this is considered cached information and required to be present. @@ Should this be multilingual? Difficult if external source does not inform about language! @@ Should this be called Label instead? Used for class names (taxon names). Provides either a simple free-form text, or a connection to an external resource The resource connector here may be changed to a derived type that also allows to enter a structured form of taxonomic names (Genus/Higher taxon, rank, optional specific/subspecific epithets, authors). However, note that simply splitting into taxon name and authors does not work, because authors may be in the middle of the parts of the taxon name (e. g. in botanical autonyms). Note that class is not restricted to accepted class names (compare Synonyms in ClassHierarchyNodeType) @@ For biological taxonomic names: order, family, species Needs discussion: should this be constrained vocabulary, or in any language? Used to define objects that are described (collected and preserved objects as well as objects that have only been observed). In biology a collected object is called a specimen. Provides either a simple free-form text, or a connection to an external resource. Identification of specimen object. The information may come from the service provider, but it must be converted to refer by ref to Resource/taxon names. If unidentified this may point to a higher taxon or a special class "unknown" introduced for that purpose. [ATTR: ref, IdentificationIsCertain] If present and false the name cited above is uncertain, e. g. as in 'Abies cf. alba' False = object has not been collected and preserved (it may still be databased in an observation database and have an ExternalID!). The default for this element is true, i. e. if the element is missing the object has been collected/preserved. Defines an element with a ref attribute pointing to a Class in Resources (in biology: Class = Taxon) Refers to a class name (biology = 'taxon'; Entities/Classes/Class) Defines an element with a ref attribute pointing to a Specimen defined in Resources @GH@: Discuss whether to add a separate element for collection abbreviation (cached information form provider or from Refers to a described object identifier (biology = 'specimen'; Entities/Objects/Object) Defines an element with a ref attribute pointing to a Publication in Resources (Resources/Publications/Publication) Defines an element with a ref attribute pointing to a MediaResource defined in Resources (Resources/MediaResources/MediaResource) A collection of MediaResourceRef elements. (the sequence in instance is not informative!) [ATTR: ref] Defines an element with a ref attribute pointing to an Agent (Resources/Agents/Agent) Reference to a Agents (Resources/Agents/Agent) The first time a creator-agent has made a contribution to the object to which it was added by reference. The first/last contribution records are specific to the role of a creator-agent. If a creator has contributed both as an author and later as an editor of data, two references in two role containers will exist. Consequently, the dates for the two roles are recorded separately. A collection of AgentRefType elements, i. e. Agents forming a team like an author team. (The xml sequence of elements in this collection is informative!) [ATTR: ref] Key/ref infrastructure: This allows to define (and redefine) the value type for keys and keyrefs (except for audience keys, which are xs:Name) Contains a key and a generic debugkey attribute. An optional attribute to add a human-readable equivalent to the numeric primary identity key, intended to simplify debugging SDD applications. The attribute can be discarded or updated at any time. Applications should not produce exports containing this attribute, instead it can be generated using xslt (based on labels/abbreviations. Currently contains only the generic debugref attribute. The ref attribute could be defined here as well, but this would prevent adding annotations to clarify which key a ref is pointing to! An optional attribute to add a human-readable equivalent to the numeric ref to simplify debugging SDD applications. The attribute can be discarded or updated at any time. Applications should not produce exports containing this attribute, instead it can be generated using xslt (based on labels/abbreviations reached through key/ref). Basic simple types: normalized string restricted to 1..255 character length (i. e. required, may not be empty string) Enumeration used in CodingStatus/Generalization Enumeration used in CodingStatus/Generalization Defines a specific method of univariate statistical measures supported by SDD. The combination of Method and MethodValue must be unique. MethodValue -1 = Minimum, MethodValue +1 = Maximum Confidence interval for the mean Undefined central value or lower or upper limit of mean, with MethodValue 0, -1 and +1 respectively. Important for legacy data where the statistical measure used is not known. If it is known that a range is a guessed rather than calculated value, the method available for this should be choosen. Range limits calculated as mean plus minus standard deviation. MethodValue defines a factor with which the s.d. is multiplied before it is added to the mean. Thus, a range of 2 s.d. has method values of -2 and 2 for lower and upper limit, respectively. Defines an unspecific broad classification of the univariate statistical measures supported by SDD. Most applications reporting information for human consumption can rely on these reporting classes in their decision how to present the data. Defines the type of a character. It refers to the type of the underlying data of the character. For example, leaf length should be typed numeric, even if currently only represented by categorical range definitions (0-10 cm, > 10 cm). nominal = unordered categorical states (DELTA: type 'UM') ordinal = ordered categorical states (DELTA: type 'OM') integer = cardinal data scale (DELTA: type 'IN') interval = real numeric = floating point values (DELTA: type 'RN') Proposal to add color as a special color type, to provide special support for RGB/HSV polygons of color values, and to support special interaction. @@ The special data structures required for this are not yet supported in other areas of the schema and need further discussion! @@ Defines the type of a concept tree (list of enumerated values to support application interoperability). Categorizing characters into basic property types (e. g. color, 2-dim. shape, 3-dim. shape, surface texture, taste, smell, behavior, physiology, measurements, etc.) greatly improves the analysis and management of larger character sets and is therefore recommended. [@ Note: Only a single concept tree should have this hierarchy type. (not enforced in schema, how can it be enforced? Other types occur multiple, i. e. one cannot make a UNIQUE statement on attribute! @] A hierarchy that organizes characters by observation method, e. g. field observation, light microscopy, electron microscopy, molecular methods, culture techniques, etc. A hierarchy that organizes characters by a morphological "contains" or "part-of" hierarchy: plant = root/stem/leaf, leaf = base/stipules/petiole/lamina, etc. Used for concept trees that fall into none of the categories above. A concept tree of type "SubsetFilter" is intended only for the purpose of filtering characters. It will often be a flat list of characters. Applications should not offer it as a choice when the user selects a hierarchy for displaying or reporting purposes. Note that conversely, the filter selection dialog in applications should not be restricted to trees of type SubsetFilter. Any concept tree, including part, method or property hierarchies may be used as a filter to define character subsets. PresentationTable concept trees are small sets of a usually a few characters that allow to display data in a tabular arrangement. It is possible to define tables in more than 2 dimensions. By default the innermost dimension is considered cells in a row, the next rows in a table. Any further dimension may be displayed as multiple 2-dimensional tables one below the other. However, applications may also offer a browser based on pivot tables. - Note: Trees of type PresentationTable should not be offered in the user interface when selecting a browsing tree. Defines the intended roles that a designer may assign to a concept tree (list of enumerated values to support application interoperability). Setting this purpose in a concept tree is a recommendation to applications with a user interface to use this as the default hierarchy for any editing or reporting purpose. The application may, however, enable the user to select any concept tree. Setting this purpose in a concept tree is a recommendation to applications with a user interface to use this as the default hierarchy for editing the terminology. The application may, however, enable the user to select any concept tree. Setting this purpose in a concept tree is a recommendation to applications with a user interface to use this as the default hierarchy for editing the description data set. The application may, however, enable the user to select any concept tree. Setting this purpose in a concept tree is a recommendation to applications to use this as the default hierarchy for building designed keys (e. g. dichotomous keys). Setting this purpose in a concept tree is a recommendation to applications to use this as the default hierarchy for interactive identification. Setting this purpose in a concept tree is a recommendation to applications to use this as the default hierarchy for natural language reporting. Double precision numeric value in the range of [0..1] (lower/upper estimate attributes; used both for probability and frequency!) Combines a publication resource reference with a detail location within that reference (esp. page number) Refers to a publication as defined under Resources/Publications [ATTR: ref] Location within publication where the cited data can be found : Page, table, figure number, database record, html document bookmark, etc. (not the inclusive pages of the article). Collection of terms (string 1-255) Allows basic character formatting using xhtml elements plus three semantic elements (citationauthor, taxonauthor, taxon; intended to be rendered formatted and for analysis). Note that no further formatting is supported within the semantic elements (taxon etc.). (Note that this is a mixed content model, allowing text between elements!) 'Emphasis' logical markup (phrase): usually rendered italic. 'Strong' logical markup (phrase): usually rendered bold. Logical markup: subscript Logical markup: superscript Font style markup: italic markup that could not be interpreted as (preferred) either emphasis or taxon. The following types are audience-specific (i. e. they refer by a ref mechanism to audiencekey values). Note that some types are used only a single time, but it was thought more transparent to define all audience-specific collections and representations through types rather than make this dependent on the frequency of use. Base type; defines an element with a ref attribute pointing to Audience definitions (different data type from generic ref!) A label = collection of audience-specific label representations (without abbreviations or natural language reporting wordings), used e. g. for concept trees or modifier sets. Audience-specific simple label representation (= without abbreviations or natural language reporting wordings) [ATTR: audience] Audience-specific label representations (without abbreviations or natural language reporting wordings); used e. g. for concept trees or modifier sets. Text of the normal label, intended for screen display or reports that accommodate unabbreviated labels. Label (incl. abbreviations) Audience-specific label representations (incl. abbreviations) [ATTR: audience] Audience-specific label representations (incl. abbreviations) Restricted to 20 characters maximum length, including blanks. Label abbreviations are especially important when displaying information in a tabular format. When missing, applications may abbreviate the label, which may lead to duplicate strings. Normalized string restricted to 1..20 character length. Small multimedia resource to be displayed in addition to the label. An icon should be recognized fast. It will usually not be informative enough to base decisions on it alone. Example: in a concept tree a leaf icon image is provided for the node containing leaf characters. [ATTR: ref] A set of multimedia resources to be displayed in addition or instead of a label, e. g. to select a state of a character during identification. If more than one resource is defined here, the assumption is that they will normally all be consumed before making a selection. The size of the resource should be sufficiently concise to view ca. 6 selectors at the same time, or listened to ca. 6 audio extracts before making a selection. - Icon and Selectors are audience-specific (e. g. image with abbreviation, bird-call with spoken text). [ATTR: ref] An entry in the terminological glossary, providing an attribute "key" by which the entry can be referred to. Audience-specific representation of a glossary entry. All audience-specific versions must define the same concept. If, for example, a fructification would be considered a 'berry' in French but not in Chinese (i. e. the definitions have different widths), these definitions must be placed in different GlossaryEntry elements, not in different Representations. [ATTR: audience] Audience-specific definitions primarily aimed at human consumption, but with the intent to be useful to computer linguistic ontological agents as well. The head term (one or several words) appears at the start of the definition and denotes the concept being defined. For characters and states the term is often identical to the Label, but this is not necessarily so, e. g. in tree nodes where term needs to carry the context. A one or several paragraphs long definition (glossary entry), explaining the concept (meaning, semantics) of a character, state, etc. Optional URI to an external definition in addition to the internal Definition above. ExternalReference may differ between different audiences. Multiple citations (publication + page number) If the Definition element is missing, the ExternalReference (URI to an external definition) is required. Audience-dependent resources used in the definition (e. g. images with text, videos with speech, or images intended for audiences of different expertise). Kind-of or is-a relationship (class inheritance hierarchy) Part-of or aggregation relationship (class composition hierarchy) Both KindOf and PartOf relationships define 'broader terms'. @@ To be discussed: Do we need both adjacent and connected? Example: The thumb is adjacent to the index finger, connected to the palm of the hand, and part of the hand Related concepts and terms. Used to express unspecific relations not yet expressed in the previous relationships. The list of related terms may also be viewed as a keywords list! Container for multiple audience-specific representations of a (publicly reported) Note as text (optionally with basic formatting). Used, e. g., inside state, statistical measure, coding status, etc. references in descriptions. [ATTR: audience] Audience-specific representation of a (publicly reported) Note as text (optionally with basic formatting). The type provides an audience reference in an attribute. [The presence of the (seemingly superfluous) text element has two advantages: 1. Cleaner typing; adding an audience attribute directly to FormattedSimpleText type would require multiple inheritance. 2. In nat. language markup, Text surrounds all verbatim text. Retrieving all Text content retrieves the original text prior to markup.]